The Blogging from A to Z Challenge is to post everyday (except Sunday) in the month of April 2020 starting with the letter A and going all the way to Z. My theme is...
Ancestor Occupations
HORSE BREEDER
My great grand uncle John Mavor was born in 1868 at Ile aux Reaux, Québec to John Mavor and Margaret Bruce who immigrated there from Ellon, Scotland. The family later moved to Compton, Quebec where they farmed.
On the advice of his brother-in-law, Carl Swanson who was an immigration agent, John decided to move west to Alberta. In 1901 John bought land in Daysland (southeast of Edmonton) from CPR at $2.745 /acre.
Glenbow Museum
He applied to buy more land which was granted 30 June 1905.
John (Jack) homesteaded on what he named Hatley Ranch, after North Hatley in Quebec where he and his wife Marcie were to get married.
Clydesdale horses are hardy, even in the cold Alberta weather, and they make good draught horses for farming. That is why John chose this breed.
This is the brand John used for his horses...
John was plowing the fields with his horses one day, and a long lost item showed up! A gold watch he had lost in the field eight years previous!
John and Marcie sold the ranch and livestock in 1945 and retired to a little house in the growing town of Daysland. John died in 1948 at the age of 80.
He must have been very pleased to find that watch.
ReplyDeleteHow did he fare with the increase in mechanisation replacing horses?
He and his brother-in-law bought a machine and helped out neighbours, but John still liked to use his horses. There was another book online a while back but it’s disappeared. Rats!
DeleteClydesdales are magnificent horses. Interesting that they cope well with the cold weather as well. How lucky was he to find the watch after so long?!
ReplyDeleteWhat newspaper source do you use for Canadian stories?
I have used Newspapers dot com, and many free ones... google newspapers and some universities have free papers depending on the province. The Ancestor Hunt website has a good list for Canada and US, by province and state.
ReplyDelete